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Comets

A comet's tail can be millions of
kilometers in length, but the amount of matter it contains can be held in a large bookbag.

Scientists believe that comets are made up of material left over from when the Sun and the planets were formed. They think that about 100,000 million comets orbit the Sun. Some comets orbit the Sun like planets. Their orbits
take them very close to and very far away from the Sun.

A comet is made of dirty ice, dust, and
gas. When a
comet gets close to the Sun, part of the ice starts to melt. The
solar winds
then push the dust and gas released by the melting ice away from the comet.
This forms the comet's tail. Every time a comet comes close to the Sun, a part
of it melts. Over time, it will completely disappear.

A comet does not give off any light of its own. What seems to be light from
the comet is actually a reflection of our Sun's light. Sunlight bounces off
the comet's ice
particles
in the same way light is
reflected
by a mirror.

A few comets come close enough to the Earth for us to see them with our
eyes. Halley's Comet, for example, can be seen from Earth every 76 years.